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It’s a new mantra for much of the national security world: “The most significant threat to our national security is our debt.”

Since the line was first spoken over two years ago, it has taken on a life of its own.

And the man behind the quote — retired Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — has not backed away from it.

Instead, he’s made the debt and the danger it poses to national security a central focus of his work since retiring last year.

Tuesday he appeared at the Newseum in Washington to announce the formation of a group of 15 national security and economic leaders who are urging the government to act quickly to avert the fiscal cliff.

Members of the Coalition for Fiscal and National Security include Madeleine Albright, James Baker, Sandy Berger, Harold Brown, Frank Carlucci, Paul O’Neill, George Shultz, Robert Gates, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry Kissinger, Ike Skelton, John Warner, Sam Nunn and Paul Volcker.

Mullen is the chairman.

The group, convened by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, is pushing for a deal in the next few weeks to avert the fiscal cliff.

But kicking the can down the road won’t be good enough, its members say.

The coalition also wants to see Washington lay the groundwork for a longer-term deficit-reduction plan that would combine revenues, entitlement reforms and further cuts to discretionary spending, including defense.

It does not specifically endorse raising tax rates, one of the main sticking points between the White House and Republicans, but it does say tax reforms should be part of the larger framework.

“It must be decided how much should be done through eliminating deductions, increasing rates and/or more fundamental changes to our [Tax Code],” the group’s statement reads.

To get the point across, the coalition has bought full-page ads in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.

Since he first issued his famous quote, Mullen said time has made the economic problems tied to the country’s debt only worse and revealed an even more disturbing political problem: Lawmakers appear unable to act.

“As an American citizen, I worry about the ability to make key decisions that really benefit the common good. That’s what’s kept me in this,” Mullen said in an interview with POLITICO.

He said he never thought that his words would take on the life they have or that he’d still be working on this issue in his retirement.

“I certainly didn’t say it thinking, ‘This is going to be famous.’ I had no idea,” he said.

He said he first tied the debt to national security more than two years ago in response to a reporter’s question.

“He asked me simply: ‘What’s the greatest threat to the United States’ national security?’ I answered with two words: ‘Our debt.’ I think I surprised him,” Mullen said.

The framework for a larger deficit-reduction deal should include further defense cuts, but they need to be implemented slowly and thoughtfully over time — not abruptly, as sequestration mandates, Mullen said. He did not specify the amount of additional spending cuts he thinks the Pentagon could weather.

Mullen said he’d know whether the can has been kicked or real progress has been made if the final framework on the fiscal cliff includes triggers that would hold lawmakers to their promises.

The triggers could be debt as a percentage of gross domestic product or a deadline for balancing the budget, he said.

“Those are not tomorrow things,” he said, “but they send signals to the globe, to the American people, to the financial markets and to the business coalition.”